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The hiring of an openly gay officer on the Pomeroy Police Department and the mayor’s reported
slurs against him have plunged the Ohio River village of about 2,000 into a political uproar.

Police Chief Mark E. Proffitt said that Mayor Mary McAngus is biased against Officer Kyle
Calendine and is trying to drum him off the police force.

The mayor has used the word “queer” and other slurs when talking about Calendine, who was
hired as a part-time officer in September. She also has complained about Calendine’s partner
visiting him at the police station even though other police spouses routinely stop by, Proffitt
said.

Such behavior is unlawful discrimination, said Proffitt, police chief since 2000 in the Meigs
County village nearly 100 miles southeast of Columbus.

The police chief’s complaints about the mayor are expected to be discussed at the village
council meeting on Monday night.

Village Council President Jackie Welker said he was sorting out the matter and was reluctant
to say much right now.

“We as a village certainly don’t agree with any discrimination,” he said. “We are
investigating what has happened and what actions need to be taken.”

McAngus, who took office in January 2012, did not return telephone messages.

Proffitt last month submitted to the village council an information packet that included his
six-page sworn statement. He warned the council that the mayor’s behavior could get the village
sued.

Proffitt wrote that McAngus called him into her office about two weeks after Calendine was
hired. She said she heard “that Kyle was a queer” and asked what the chief was going to do about
it. Nothing, he replied, because that would be discrimination.

“She stated ‘I don’t like a Queer working for the Village, I might be old-fashioned, but I
don’t like it.’” Proffitt wrote in the statement.

The mayor persisted in making crude comments about the officer and his partner to police
department employees, Proffitt said.

She asked a newly hired officer if he knew that Calendine was gay and whether that bothered
him. When the officer said no, she asked him if he, too, was gay, and smiled and stared at him
until the uncomfortable officer said he had to get back to work, Proffitt said.

The mayor has attempted to bar Calendine’s partner from visiting him at the police station,
and the police chief told her that she couldn’t do that.

Proffitt included in his packet to the village council a signed statement he took from
village Administrator Paul Hellman. While meeting with the mayor for her signature on contracts for
a village project, “Mary began telling me that we had a gay guy working in the police department
and she had to run off Kyle’s boyfriend,” Hellman said.

The packet included a signed statement from Calendine in which he said that the police chief
told him that the mayor had said she didn’t want him promoted to a full-time officer due to
complaints.

“Chief Proffitt and myself at this time knew it was not complaints ... (but) because of my
sexual preferences,” Calendine said.

The mayor’s behavior “appalls me,” the police chief said in an interview today. “He shouldn’t
have to work in a hostile work environment.”